00:09:39
Dance move number three, preachers must understand the content and context of scripture. I think I heard my buddy Ed Stetzer say that, and it’s really profound. It’s not enough to know the content of scripture. We also need to know the people we’re preaching to. And the culture that’s situated in the Gospel never, ever changes, but the culture does.
00:10:05
Therefore, we must be like an artist who has a paintbrush, and Jesus blood colors our lives so his redemptive work can take place in the everydayness of life. So, dance move number three. We need to know the content of scripture and the context of culture. Dance move number four. I call this head, heart, hands, head, heart, hands.
00:10:28
Upward, inward, outward. Head, heart, hands. After I do my exegetical work to pull out the meaning of scripture, the Christo-centric work, I ask myself three questions. What do I want people to think about Jesus and his redemptive work? Head.
00:10:45
What do I want people to feel about Jesus and his redemptive work? Heart. What do I want people to allow Jesus to do in their lives as a result of his redemptive work? Hands. Head.
00:10:59
Heart. Hands. So we want people’s minds exploding with the glory and the beauty of God. We want people’s hearts exploding with the grace of God. And we want people’s hands moved by the love of God.
00:11:15
Dance move number five. Less simple. Passionate. Less simple. Passionate.
00:11:22
The younger of a preacher you are, the shorter you should be. Trust me. I know, I know. You’re like, no, what are you talking about? Trust me.
00:11:31
My professors when I was young would say, listen, preach shorter sermons. They will be better. The younger you are. You tend to want to do more to impress people. Preaching isn’t about impressing people.
00:11:44
Preaching is an act of worship. It is about connecting with Jesus. It is about the transformative power of the Gospel. So less simple and passionate. When I say simple, I don’t mean simplistic.
00:11:59
We can say deeply complex things, but in a simple way. True genius is making the complex simple and understandable. Preachers remember, less is more. Focus your sermons on one big idea, one big theme. True genius is the ability to communicate the complex in a way that is understandable.
00:12:23
One of the greatest blessings that have formed me as a preacher is this. Our church is multigenerational as well as multiethnic. So if you’re in 6th grade or above, you’re in the main worship service with the adults. So when I’m preaching and thinking, I have to think about an eleven year old and a 70 year old, an unbeliever and a believer. A person who’s been churched, a person who’s unchurched, a person who is spiritually curious, a person who’s in rebellion.
00:12:54
Not only that, but also ethnicities, also ages. And that forces me to pray. And to be super clear, we’ve seen the fruit of that for 14 years. It’s been epic. Preaching to young people simultaneously, while preaching to older generations have made me a better preacher and a better disciple, because it’s made me more dependent on the Holy Spirit’s power.
00:13:21
Lastly, dance to the rhythm of your own sermon. It is good to learn from others, but you don’t want to be a clone of them. Listen, only you can be you. No one can be better at you being you. And if the Lord Jesus wanted you to be somebody else as a communicator, he would have made you somebody else.
00:13:42
But he made you to find your unique voice. So, dance to the rhythm of God’s grace. Dance, I say. Dance to the rhythm of God’s grace, so others can dance to the rhythm of God’s grace. So in conclusion, here’s how I dance to the rhythm of God’s grace.
00:14:01
Before I prepare a sermon, Jesus must prepare me. Dance move number two. Christocentric preaching. All of scriptures about Jesus. He is the hero of the story.
00:14:12
We want people leaving our sermons going, I never knew Jesus was that beautiful. I never knew the Gospel was that incredible. I never knew redemption was this amazing. Dance move number three, know the content of scripture and the context of culture. Dance move number four.
00:14:33
Head. Heart. Hands. What do I want people to think? What I want people to feel, what I want people to do in response to exegeting the text.
00:14:41
Dance move number five, less simple and passionate. Less is more true. Genius is taking the complex and making it understandable. And there is something about passion. I think it was John Wesley who said this.
00:14:58
“When a man or a woman is preaching and they catch on fire, people will come everywhere to see them burn.” And my hope and my prayer is that you and I would burn for the glory of God and set everybody ablaze. Why? So that we would be lit up with love. When the church is transformed, the world will be transformed.
00:15:24
This is Pastor Derwin Gray. Marinate on that.
